New book out by psychologist Rachel MacNair. Should be interesting:
Applying the principles of peace psychology to the abortion situation of the United States, this book shows that the insights of the psychology of violence that are so well known from the practice of war and similar killing can also apply to abortion. Most particularly, evidence for the effect that the practice has on the doctors and nurses that do it is detailed. Also, the drive for consistency of the human mind interplays with this to show us something about effective strategy: as people understand the practice is declining, it becomes safer to hear what’s wrong with it, and it becomes more likely for people to try to explain the decline by noting what’s wrong with it.
Pro-abortion folks will often complain when anti-abortion folks are not pacifists.(Hypocrisy charges.) But if you are against most or all wars because they are killing, then you most assuredly cannot afford to be pro-abortion. Rachel MacNair is a pacifist…(I’m not.) But I appreciate her unique angle and I’m keenly interested in what MacNair has to say about the effects on doctors and nurses who are involved with killing for a living; and this “people understand the practice is declining, it becomes safer to hear what’s wrong with it,” intrigues me too.








Along the same lines, here is an article from First Things by Fr. Richard Neuhaus (may he rest in peace) called “Abortion as the Politics of the 60s”.
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6453
Along these lines…
I think that perhaps the best place for the pro-life movement to spend its energy is in working to enshrine the right for medical professionals to refuse to perform treatments for conscience reasons in our legislation. The numbers of doctors who are willing to perform abortions are dwindling. If there are no (or few) doctors who are willing to perform abortions, the pro-life/pro-choice debate becomes moot.
That being said, a society will put legislation in place to protect that which it values. The stunning lack of legislation in this country with respect to abortion is not at all congruent with the general population’s regard for unborn human life.
I am glad she researched this. This is a side of the pro-life debate I have not heard of before. As a pacifist myself I would be really interested in reading the book. Thanks for highlighting it for us and thank you for this blog. You all do a lot of good. 🙂